The present invention relates to pantyhose, and more particularly, to pantyhose that contain an unobstructed opening sized and positioned such that a wearer may easily perform bodily functions such as urinate, defecate, and engage in sexual activity there through without at least partially lowering the pantyhose and without undue physical manipulation of any portion of the pantyhose.
Pantyhose serve a wide variety of medical, athletic, and aesthetic functions. In one common use, they are constructed of a sheer, pigmented, usually knit or woven, material that serves an aesthetic function to hide blemishes and other imperfections found on the wearer""s legs and lower torso. These type of pantyhose, commonly worn by women, can also include elastic material in their leg and torso portions to allow the pantyhose to simultaneously function as a girdle and support hose. These types of pantyhose are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9ccontrol topxe2x80x9d pantyhose. However, unlike traditional stocking and girdle combinations, control top pantyhose also offer their wearer continuous support along the user""s legs and lower torso, thereby eliminating undesirable panty lines and the like.
The amount of support offered by traditional pantyhose can be optimized to thereby allow them to also be used for medical and athletic purposes. For example, doctors often prescribe medical support hose and the like to their male and female patient""s with certain medical conditions and following certain types of surgery. These same support benefits also help male and female athletes, such as dancers and the like, perform effectively while reducing risk of injury.
Traditional pantyhose usually require their wearer to pull at least a portion of them down to perform bodily functions such as urinating and defecating. However, patients and physically-challenged individuals wearing such hose often do not have the ability to perform this maneuver without assistance from another person. Moreover, athletes and performers often wear complex uniforms and costumes over their pantyhose, making it difficult to perform this maneuver quickly and easily.
Similarly, when such types of traditional pantyhose are serving a primarily aesthetic function, the pantyhose is usually necessarily constructed of an aesthetically-pleasing, but fragile, woven material. Accordingly, excessive manipulation of this material often results in a premature fray, or xe2x80x9crunxe2x80x9d in the material, thereby destroying the aesthetic benefits of the pantyhose and rendering them useless. Frequent pulling down and up of pantyhose associated with the wearer performing bodily functions unduly increases the risk of pantyhose runs.
Efforts to provide a pantyhose-type garment that permits its wearer to perform bodily functions without at least partially removing the garment have had limited success. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,364 to Orr discloses a garment having separate left and fight leg structures that overlap and join together at the wearer""s torso forming overlapping flaps adjacent to the wearer""s lower torso that must be digitally separated from each other by the wearer to form an opening in the garment that allows the wearer to perform bodily functions there through. Similar overlapping flap-type structures can also be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,504 to Bregnzer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,550 to Carver, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,304 to McCants-Reed.
All of these types of devices require the wearer to manually separate overlapping flaps or the like to expose an opening through which the wearer may perform bodily functions. Able-bodied users of such devices have difficulty simultaneously manipulating these flaps, and sitting on the toilet or the like as described. Moreover, most of these flaps are biased to a closed, or covered position, thereby creating considerable mess should the wearer inadvertently release one or both of the flaps while performing such a bodily function. In addition, these flaps add considerable production costs to the pantyhose manufacture, and they are typically constructed of the same fragile, woven material as the remainder of the pantyhose. Accordingly, repeated manipulation of the flaps increases the likelihood of a run, which can propagate to visible portions of the pantyhose.
III and physically-challenged individuals typically have no easier time manipulating these flaps as described than partially-pulling down a portion of the pantyhose to perform bodily functions. Accordingly, these individuals wearing pantyhose with these types of features, still require assistance to perform such bodily functions.
Another type of known pantyhose has a ventilated crotch area. These type of pantyhose are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9ccrotchlessxe2x80x9d pantyhose, and they usually have a small opening aligned adjacent to the vaginal area, or crotch, of the wearer""s torso. The primary purpose for these types of pantyhose is to improve ventilation around the wearer""s crotch. Some crotchless pantyhose are also aimed at providing erotic aesthetics.
Known crotchless pantyhose offer only a limited benefit in allowing their wearers to perform bodily functions without at least partially removing or otherwise manually-manipulating the garment. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,5054,129 to Baehr, a ventilated crotchless pantyhose garment is disclosed. A small opening is provided adjacent to the wearer""s crotch for ventilation and to allow the wearer to urinate without partially removing the pantyhose. However, the opening is so small that xe2x80x9c[w]hen stretched on the body it forms a narrow slit which can be digitally manipulated when necessary.xe2x80x9d Accordingly, such an opening is designed only to allow its wearer to urinate through it, and the wearer, must still digitally manipulate the material surrounding the opening when attempting to urinate through the opening.
Accordingly, despite the improvements offered by known pantyhose designs, there remains a need for an economical and easy to manufacture pair of pantyhose that when worn, allow its wearer to perform bodily functions such as urinating, defecating and engaging in sexual activity without lowering the pantyhose and without undue physical manipulation of any portion of the pantyhose. In addition to other benefits that will become apparent in the following disclosure, the present invention fulfills these needs.
The present invention is a pair of pantyhose having left and right leg portions joined together by a lower torso portion. The lower torso portion. includes a relatively large, unobstructed opening between the leg portions. The opening is sized and positioned to expose the wearer""s crotch and anus areas when the pantyhose are worn by the wearer. Accordingly, the wearer may perform bodily functions, such as urinating, defecating, and engaging in sexual activities without having to digitally manipulate any portion of the pantyhose.
In a preferred embodiment, the pair of pantyhose is a sheer, pigmented, monolithic, knit or woven, elastic structure. In an alternative preferred embodiment, the torso portion includes an additional resilient element, which thereby allows the pair of pantyhose to function like a pair of control top pantyhose. The pantyhose can also be optimized for medical and athletic purposes by constructing the pantyhose with materials having desirable resiliency and support characteristics for such purposes.